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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Well, it's been quite a week for me. I got a few trades and purchases in the mail, but me being my lazy self, I wanted to wait until they all came in to do one bulk post on the whole thing.

First on the agenda is a trade I made with William at Foul Bunt. I saw his 2011 Topps Ernie Banks SP and immediately laid claim. I swapped him the Frank Robinson from 2010 for a quick and easy 1-for-1

I also received in the mail the consolation prize from a contest at Puck Junk revolving around the NHL All Star Game. Every one who entered got something in return and I was happy to find hologram cards fron the 1992 All Star Game of Ray Bourque and Cam Neely.

The next two cards are ebay purchases. The first is a rookie card of former Minnesota Twins star Kent Hrbek. My dad is a huge Minnesota sports fan and growing up, he was the second biggest player (both in star power and actual size) on the Twins next to Kirby Puckett. This was actually an auction from a fellow blogger, but I can't remember who it is. Either way, if anyone wants to see what else he has up for grabs, go here.

Lastly, I picked up, for just 5 bucks shipped, a cool-looking Alfonso Soriano triple relic card (numbered 8/36) from 2007 Triple Threads. The swatches, I believe, are a piece of bat and two from the shoes. The one on the left, obviously, is the mesh from the exterior, but the peach colored swatch on the right is a bit of a mystery. Most likely, it comes somewhere from the inside of the shoe.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

A REALLY cool contest is taking place over at Crinkly Wrappers. For just the price of an opinion of Topps' best year, he will be giving away a group of cards containing on each from every Topps base year. So go over and check it out.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

It looks like Topps has launched their Diamond Giveaway site today. While there isn't much of a clear description of what it all entails, it appears to be just like the Million Card Giveaway from last year, with a few bonuses added in. With 11 codes in my possession, let's see what I have.

Code 1: 2007 Topps Rocco Baldelli

Code 2: 2007 Topps Rob Mackowiak

Code 3: 1992 Topps Charlie Liebrandt

Code 4: 1974 Topps Jim Beauchamp

Code 5: 1975 Topps Enos Cabell

Code 6: 2007 Topps Phillies Team Card

Code 7: 1995 Topps Greg Harris

Code 8: 1973 Topps John Strohmayer

Code 9: 1990 Topps Mike Brumley

Code 10: 1963 Topps Bob Bolin

Code 11: 1986 Topps Milt Wilcox

Not too bad. Let's face it, most of what you'll cash in on these is commons anyway, but it was nice to have one-third of the cards coming from the 70s or before. Now, in addition to redeeming the cards, you also have the option to "dig" for other prizes. I have 11, but Topps apparently is still working on this feature. It isn't quite working properly, so I'll have to try later and see what happens. I guess you can't expect for it to work properly the day of launch. You SHOULD expect for it to work properly, but I guess you can't expect that. Oh well, more on this later.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

I had the day off of work today and tons of free time, so a trip to the LCS was in order. I was hoping to pick up a couple of jumbo packs from 2011 Topps baseball. He was all out, but I wasn't going to leave empty handed.

One of my favorite non-baseball sets this year was Topps Prime football. It has vibrant-full color fronts and reminds me of Stadium Club, which is a set I greatly miss. The hobby box there contained 10 packs of 6 cards, with four guaranteed hits per box. The dealer told me only three hits had been pulled, so it was likely that the last remaining pack would contain one. I figured, what the hell, and forked over the cash. Out of the six cards, two were Falcons and two were Steelers, plus I got a Texan insert of Ben Tate. I did get a hit, which turned out to be a jersey swatch of Steelers wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders numbered 42/420.

I also found a jersey card of Cubs hall-of-famer Billy Williams. The only catch was that it is from his Oakland days toward the end of his career. Still, a Cubs hall-of-famer is a Cubs hall-of-famer, and for only six bucks, I'm willing for it to be green instead of blue.

For all you contest fans out there, a fantastic giveaway is taking place over at Things Are Funner Here. Up for grabs is $50 store credit toward anything at CSN Stores. As a bonus, there will also be 2nd and 3rd place prizes, so check it out.

Monday, February 7, 2011

I just received a trade in the mail from Colbey, who blogs at Cardboard Collections. In exchange for some Braves and a few items off his baseball and WWE want lists, I received a few items for the 2009 Allen & Ginter set, plus what so far has been the best card I have ever traded for.

Looking at his "for trade" list, I saw a few cards from last years top two rookies (hobby related at least) and picked out the Posey and Strasburg cards from last year's Bowman Platinum

The next two cards were the prize of the package. Despite living in Houston, I'm not a huge Astros fan, but over the years, I have developed an appreciation for Craig Biggio. One of the first few cards Colbey brought to my attention was a patch card of Biggio's, which looks stunning. It's from 2003 Fleer Platinum and appears to be a swatch from the bottom corner of the A on the front of the jersey.

The top card of the package was an on-card auto of Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski from 2010 National Chicle. Despite being pretty apathetic toward Boston sports teams, Yastrzemski holds a significant place in baseball history as the last player to win the triple crown (1967).

Thanks for the trade Colbey. Your package is going out today. I made a few late additions, which I'm sure you will be happy with.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

After reading post after post of various bloggers busting packs of 2011 Topps, I HAD to get some for myself. On the way home from work, I picked up four rack packs and a blaster from my local Wal-Mart.

Now, I'm usually a set collector, especially with Topps' main issue, and I know that the blasters are horrible for that purpose, but I LOVE the manu-patch cards Topps puts out. I pulled a few from 2010 and I think they are really good looking cards and add a little bit extra to the collection. Last year's issue had players from the past (and a few from the present) along with a patch related to an All-Star Game or World Series they played in. 2011 goes in a different direction, taking present-day players alongside a "throwback" patch of their team. My blaster gave me an Evan Longoria. A great player, but it does seem weird that a team which has only existed 13 years has a "throwback" logo.

There's also a special diamond anniversary parallel that appears to be seeded one-per-pack, whi9ch quite a few people seem to be going after. While I didn't get anything special here, I did get a Stephen Strasburg Wal-Mart black bordered card. Now that Strasburg-mania has died down, I'm getting these cards all over the place.

There are also a couple of other inserts I'll be collecting. The Kimball minis look amazing, and should be a fairly easy set to complete, and just like last year's CYMTO, the 60 Years of Topps cards will be a fun set to complete, as will the similar Lost Cards set.

Those all came from the blaster, and here's what I pulled from the rack packs

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

I met up with Sam, who writes at the Daily Dimwit, this weekend to put a pretty massive trade together. While we both live in the Houston area, we live pretty much on the opposite side of town, but he was nice enough to make the long drive over to the apartment to swap a few cards, talk about the hobby, and catch up in person. I parted with a few cards he needed for some sets and some Astros, as well as a few movie-related relic cards for his wife, and I was able to take away a HUGE number of singles.

I was able to knock a significant portion of my needs from 2010 Update, 2009 Allen & Ginter and 2009 A Piece of History, and I grabbed all of his extras from 2009 Goodwin Champions. I hadn't gotten any of the Goodwin cards previously, besides a single pack at Target, but seeing so many of them together, I came to the conclusion that the set would look phenomenal in a binder. I figured, I'll grab what I can and see what I can do with it.

I am also a huge Chicago Cubs fan, and seeing as how Sam despises that team, it works out pretty well for me. He posted on his blog a few weeks ago about his trip to the Houston Tri Star show and I was finally able to pick up the card he found for me: A Ron Santo from the 1968 Topps Game set. While the Cubs legend is on a "pop out" card, it looks really nice, is in pretty good condition and is my first vintage Santo. Not bad for a card he got from a dealer's "dollar bin." I also picked up two relics: a 2009 Kosuke Fukudome Allen and Ginter and a 2008 Upper Deck X Mark Prior. The Fukudome looks great, as do all of the Allen & Ginter hit cards and while the Prior is a pinstripe swatch, it suffers from the infamoud Upper Deck move of putting the new team name on the card, while keeping everything else in the old team. It looks like a Cubs card, apart from the "San Diego Padres" team label.

I also grabbed what I could from his Cubs extras, which gave me TWO Ryne Sandberg CYMTO cards: one with the CYMTO backing and one with the original back, as well as his Turkey Red insert. I also picked up an Ernie Banks Turkey Red card, which I had not been able to find up until this point. The Josh Hamilton is from the 2007 SP Rookie Edition set and is an example of one thing I actually like about the "Toppsopoly." Upper Deck plastered "Rookie Card" on the front of this card, as it was his first year in the majors and (I think) his first year on an Upper Deck card. However, Topps came out with a card of his, I think, in 2001, when he was with the Devil Rays. With only one game in town, that company can put a rookie label on a card and you know what it is. You don't have to worry about another company negating that because it released an issue of 200 random minor leaguers a few years back and just happened to get one right. Everything else about the Toppsopoly might suck, but that's at least one good thing. I also found a bunch of Brooklyn Dodgers cards, and it dawned on me just how many Brooklyn cards there are in Topps this year, which is good for me. More of them to collect.

In other news, I received in the mail today, MUCH earlier than expected, an ebay auction I had won for a 1962 Ernie Banks card. Considering 48 years has passed, the card is in phenomenal shape, and puts me one step closer to getting every regular issue card of Mr. Cub.